Gowdy: Hillary Had Three Subpoenas, Two Before Server Was Wiped

Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said Hillary Clinton actually had three subpoenas, two of which were sent before her server was wiped on Wednesday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show.”

Gowdy was asked, “‘I’ve never had a subpoena,’ her words. Congressman Trey Gowdy, did Hillary Clinton lie yesterday?” He answered, “It is a fact that there was a subpoena issued to her in March of 2015. But Congressman, it’s also a fact that there was a subpoena in existence from another Congressional committee far before that one. So there are two subpoenas. There are letters from Congress. And there’s a statutory obligation to her to preserve public records.” And “There was a, — think back right after Benghazi, Jason Chaffetz wrote a letter to Secretary Clinton, in fact, saying Congress has the right and the authority to investigate these attacks. That is tantamount to a ‘do not destroy’ request. Also keep in mind, Congress wrote her directly when she was Secretary of State and asked her specifically, ‘Do you ever use personal email?’ She never answered that question. She never said yes, she never said no. All right, fast forward. The Oversight Committee is looking into Benghazi. They issued a subpoena to the State Department to bring certain documents over to Congress so we can inspect them. It is that subpoena that ultimately led the State Department to give us the first eight emails we got from her.” Gowdy then said this subpoena was sent in 2013.

He added, “There was another one to the State Department. In August of 2013, there were two subpoenas sent to the State Department, which are requests for documents. But as a result of that subpoena to the State Department, the State Department then produced to us her emails. So, there is no way to claim that there was not some legal process directing that those emails be retained and ultimately produced, because they were.” And that “There were two, [subpeonas] one related to ARB documents, and one related to what we call reading room documents. And they were sent to the Department of State, asking that Congress be delivered these documents. Where that becomes important is, it was as a result of that Oversight subpoena that the Department of State first gave us any of her emails. So, clearly, her emails were covered by that subpoena, or the Department of State never would have given them to us. Now her out is going to be this, or what she thinks is her out, ‘Well, the State Department didn’t have my emails, I did.’ Which then moves us to the law, the statute, the regulation, which places on her an affirmative duty to protect and preserve public records. So, whether there’s a subpoena in place or not, the law is and has been in place, you have to preserve public record. She decided on her own what was and was not public record. And John, what’s even worse than that, I mean, think when she left office. She left office in February of 2013, right? … She didn’t delete and wipe clean that server until the fall of 2014, 20 months later, after she left.”